To the last of time all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts his hour on the stage, then heard no more. A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

War Hero

@fraudstar
I'll take up the cudgel, if it's ok, it takes hours daily for my brain to marry up with the rest of my central nervous system.
We are where we are, for many many reasons, all interlaced and bloody nigh on impossible to 'unpick'...
Let's start with Govts./ populations, post war, still under the oppressive tenure of rationing..There weren't many Lard arses with Type2 diabetes (even into the '70s.)
Then free market capitalism unleashed a different kind of Globalisation than our Post Empirical Country was used to, we were too skint to resist the lure of 'cheap' food, which is the bedfellow of 'throwaway' food .
Govt. is happy however cos the masses aren't hungry.
Then we join the EEC ( lets not eh! there are enough threads out there to waste pixels on). Which begat over production of certain foodstuffs, not to provide a strategic supply in times of drought/ epidemic to name but two, there's plenty more, but was/still is a policy engineered to pacify/ buy the electorate in several powerful countries where the rural population holds a greater sway than Lil ol' GB.
Domestic science, taught in schools as I remember it, wasn't seen as particularly 'sexy' 45 yrs ago, it was somewhere the 'thick kids' could go without causing too much grief to the rest of the aspirational middle class kids, who's mother's actually did cook and bake with em, at weekends, just like Granny did (I wonder why Marie Berry is such a star?)
Those bored DS kids are now feckin Nanna's emselves, their Waynettas haven't benefitted much from mums' knowhow other than how to exploit the Welfare system to the max, Maccy D's, Chippys and Farm Foods are the beneficiaries round these parts.
Meanwhile, as is so ably demonstrated this last fortnight, 'shortermism' has pared our JiT business community SOP to the point that little old ladies can't buy a tin of sardines, half a dozen eggs and a small loaf of bread that'll feed her for a.fortnight, cos she remembers how it used to be.
It was heartening to see even the fresh fruit and veg aisles getting pillaged after about day 3 or so.....
Who knew so many people have suddenly remembered how to cook?
Then I shudder to think how much of that cheap fruit an veg is gonna get binned by weekend,eggs next, then tins of stuff with sell by dates'll be last.
FFS!
It won't make the meedya story ,that's for sure.

So here we are.

I'll not starve.
Nor will my coos, I try and keep AT LEAST one winters worth of grub in front of us.
Is it not unreasonable to think along the same lines for a Nations' food commodities/ medicines/ Virus compliant face masks?

As an addendum,
Innit funny how all of a sudden in today's 'Modern/ Dynamic/Fast Paced/Vibrant.....Society
Turns out a great majority of those doing the menial, mundane, low skilled, jobs turn out to be the ones described as
'KEY'!
Whod've thunk Society doesn't actually NEED Socul Meedya Influencers and Micro Slebs.

I know, btw, I've got one,
She was shortlisted for a certain Desert Island Castaway type show last year.

" And how do you think you would cope having to prepare a fish for The Group to eat?"

"Well , my Dad taught us how to snare and skin a rabbit when I was six, I shoot stuff but the rule is we eat what we kill.
I've had to butcher my own pigs/ lambs rather than let the knacker bin 'em, so I think we'd do ok!"

It was the wrong answer apparently,they wanted a Vegan.

@HT will probably address your questions more pertinently, he's from a younger, more 'switched on' generation of agriculturalists this country desperately needs.
I'm just a feckin brain damaged hillbilly with too much time on his hands.
Sorry if I've drifted.

War Hero

War Hero

I thought about a few things today whilst self-- isolating on a tractor for 9 hours, one of which was how London types who block access to the yard and then disappear should be punished.
As to price support, I would have no problem with marketing boards for grain, milk, meat and so on. It worked for milk for 70 years, and I still can't work out why it was abolished. Some would no doubt dose on about 'Nationalised ' farming, but in reality, thanks to the strictures of ACCS, RPA, BPS and so on it is already.
Education as a means to improve public health/reduce food waste. I think I have not a clue how to do this, although I think Finland ? tackled their obesity problem through school. My idea of Home Ec. or Domestic Science was very effectively dismantled by @Oops, responsible parents will ensure their children at the least have an understanding and appreciation of food, its production and how to prepare it. The disinterested won't, they will then breed true to type and that is why there is a sugar tax.

War Hero

I thought about a few things today whilst self-- isolating on a tractor for 9 hours, one of which was how London types who block access to the yard and then disappear should be punished.
As to price support, I would have no problem with marketing boards for grain, milk, meat and so on. It worked for milk for 70 years, and I still can't work out why it was abolished. Some would no doubt dose on about 'Nationalised ' farming, but in reality, thanks to the strictures of ACCS, RPA, BPS and so on it is already.
Education as a means to improve public health/reduce food waste. I think I have not a clue how to do this, although I think Finland ? tackled their obesity problem through school. My idea of Home Ec. or Domestic Science was very effectively dismantled by @Oops, responsible parents will ensure their children at the least have an understanding and appreciation of food, its production and how to prepare it. The disinterested won't, they will then breed true to type and that is why there is a sugar tax.

We've got a marketing board...
AHDB, otherwise known as a retirement fund for NFU board members, but hey.
I used to buy calves , every week from auction rings, to rear and fatten at home, I remember when the Milk Marketing Board was being disbanded...EEC competition practices ISTR.
All the chat from the Dairy Farmers who used to sell calves were nearly wetting emselves...
Milk Marque was the 'new' old board was paying a price per litre not unlike the previous crew.
Northern Foods (up here) were paying a penny a litre more ( £180+ cow yr more) sign for three years , Tesco is your friend....
I warned em, they would regret breaking up their collective negotiating power, divide and rule was their MO, they'd done the veg men five years before.
"Yeah but...."
Three years later,
"This is how much you can produce milk for, therefore here is the price were gonna pay for it"
There was no one else to take it , Milk Marque went bust , they couldn't stand up to the might of Tesco's et al with a fractured producer base.
They do it all for the customer y'know.
Every little helps.

War Hero

We've got a marketing board...
AHDB, otherwise known as a retirement fund for NFU board members, but hey.
I used to buy calves , every week from auction rings, to rear and fatten at home, I remember when the Milk Marketing Board was being disbanded...EEC competition practices ISTR.
All the chat from the Dairy Farmers who used to sell calves were nearly wetting emselves...
Milk Marque was the 'new' old board was paying a price per litre not unlike the previous crew.
Northern Foods (up here) were paying a penny a litre more ( £180+ cow yr more) sign for three years , Tesco is your friend....
I warned em, they would regret breaking up their collective negotiating power, divide and rule was their MO, they'd done the veg men five years before.
"Yeah but...."
Three years later,
"This is how much you can produce milk for, therefore here is the price were gonna pay for it"
There was no one else to take it , Milk Marque went bust , they couldn't stand up to the might of Tesco's et al with a fractured producer base.
They do it all for the customer y'know.
Every little helps.

War Hero

Not the only factors. There are going to be a lot of unemployed young Brits around this year; how many will want to stop watching their sports channels, turn off their iPhones and get their hands dirty?

'The U.K. organization for farmers, landowners and businesses in rural England and Wales has said labor shortages caused by coronavirus could be devastating for this years' harvest. They are calling for a 'land army' of local labor to be recruited to assist the sector, which expects to see its labor supply cut by 75% as EU workers who normally come to the U.K. to work for the harvest season are prevented from coming.

'The U.K. agriculture sector was already in trouble, heavily reliant on EU workers as it is. Since the Brexit referendum in 2016, when the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, labor supply from the mainland has been dwindling, and the government's recent immigration stance emphasizing high-skilled migration has provided little comfort.

'Now, thanks to coronavirus, we are seeing what happens when borders are totally closed to foreign workers, at least for one sector. According to the CLA, the agriculture sector usually uses around 60,000 seasonal laborers per year to complete the harvest, and they expect only around 25% of that amount this year. Factor in a 20% coronavirus infection rate the CLA is reckoning with, and they estimate some 80,000 people will need to be mobilized to protect Britain's harvest.'

Have a royal pain in the arse beagle cross who is excellent as a gun dog. By that I mean excellent at doing what he wants and is as useful on a shoot as a boomerang and has the recall of a straight boomerang.

Have a cat who is shit scared of anything outdoors but gobs off like a cunt if I don't open the backdoor so he can survey his kingdom. So that's any rats taken care of.

But I ordered my chicken coop today so really excited at filling it with some feathery cunts who will knowing my luck refuse to lay or turn out to gobby cunty cockerills etc......

Yay cant fecking wait. On a plus note I have managed to use boomerang in a humorous way twice in a sentence. I am a giant amongst pigmys and winning at life . Hooorahhh

https://www.torn.com/2146848
Linky above for torn city rpg game refferal thingy. If you click and join i get cool stuff. Please clicky and join our faction.

Have a royal pain in the arse beagle cross who is excellent as a gun dog. By that I mean excellent at doing what he wants and is as useful on a shoot as a boomerang and has the recall of a straight boomerang.

Have a cat who is shit scared of anything outdoors but gobs off like a **** if I don't open the backdoor so he can survey his kingdom. So that's any rats taken care of.

But I ordered my chicken coop today so really excited at filling it with some feathery cnuts who will knowing my luck refuse to lay or turn out to gobby cunty cockerills etc......

Yay cant fecking wait. On a plus note I have managed to use boomerang in a humorous way twice in a sentence. I am a giant amongst pigmys and winning at life . Hooorahhh

LE

Annoyingly I cannot go help my local shoot due to the current restrictions.

and in the last week everyone seems to have got a dog.

has anyone else got a bullace tree? A much underrated fruit for jam.

Nothing can stop me now, I don't care anymore.

To the last of time all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts his hour on the stage, then heard no more. A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Why the feck should we have to put up with the Idle/ workshy and thieving cnuts of society....
They'll last a week at most, meanwhile sussing out where all the security cameras, alarms , powertools ,diesel tanks, batteries etc. are. In
Good lads will only work for the meagre rewards on offer if you stick em in the seat of a £100k chariot, there's as much tech as in a haeroplane in some of em.
Dickheads won't get cold, wet or dirty whatever the 'incentives'....
Hence North Eastern Europeans.
They're hard.

War Hero

Thought I'd put a pic up for @Humble Tiller i if no-one else,
This is the lad who rented my lovingly cared for environmental friendly farmed field last year to grow spuds on (Rotation, weed burden an' all that)
Anyhow, here in the wet NW of England, it rains, alot....
That's why we can grow spuds without expensive irrigation etc.
However, come autumn it can be a tad hectic during Oct/Nov time, there's always a week or so before the frost gets a bite but it's cool enough to store spuds without em going in too warm. It's usually also our wettest period,things are always fraught.
Last year it just rained (and rained)
Then it rained harder in Dec.
He 'mauled' his spuds out in Jan, destroying my precious soil structure, worm population, etc.
He came with a bright shiny tractor this morning to "level it up a bit"...
The state of his wheels are a clue!

He stopped for a myder as I was taking this pic...
" A certain chip Mc.manufacturer, who supplies a certain fast food Mc.restaurant chain, who has ceased trading, has pulled the plug on spud deliveries and processing, unilaterally ripping up their supplier contracts" .....

That's code for
"I'm gonna struggle to pay you the £5K rent I owe you "...

LE

Talking of soil structure, does anyone practise a no-till regime? If so, how has it worked? I’m wondering about it in the veg patch.

Nothing can stop me now, I don't care anymore.

To the last of time all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts his hour on the stage, then heard no more. A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

LE

Why the feck should we have to put up with the Idle/ workshy and thieving cnuts of society....
They'll last a week at most, meanwhile sussing out where all the security cameras, alarms , powertools ,diesel tanks, batteries etc. are. In
Good lads will only work for the meagre rewards on offer if you stick em in the seat of a £100k chariot, there's as much tech as in a haeroplane in some of em.
********* won't get cold, wet or dirty whatever the 'incentives'....
Hence North Eastern Europeans.
They're hard.

Face book is full of outraged bellends saying farmers should take on prisoners/doleys etc to pick fruit/veg , utter stupidity , theyve clearly never risen above the rank of labourer themselves ,WTF would a farmer want a bus load of paedos/murderers/terrorists and fat lazy cnuts turning up at their farm for training / work ?

War Hero

View attachment 461661
Thought I'd put a pic up for @Humble Tiller i if no-one else,
This is the lad who rented my lovingly cared for environmental friendly farmed field last year to grow spuds on (Rotation, weed burden an' all that)
Anyhow, here in the wet NW of England, it rains, alot....
That's why we can grow spuds without expensive irrigation etc.
However, come autumn it can be a tad hectic during Oct/Nov time, there's always a week or so before the frost gets a bite but it's cool enough to store spuds without em going in too warm. It's usually also our wettest period,things are always fraught.
Last year it just rained (and rained)
Then it rained harder in Dec.
He 'mauled' his spuds out in Jan, destroying my precious soil structure, worm population, etc.
He came with a bright shiny tractor this morning to "level it up a bit"...
The state of his wheels are a clue!

He stopped for a myder as I was taking this pic...
" A certain chip Mc.manufacturer, who supplies a certain fast food Mc.restaurant chain, who has ceased trading, has pulled the plug on spud deliveries and processing, unilaterally ripping up their supplier contracts" .....

That's code for
"I'm gonna struggle to pay you the £5K rent I owe you "...

War Hero

Yup,
I sold my plough fifteen years ago and I don't even have a beard!
( I'm not seen as a 'proper' farmer round here though, cos I have livestock and I've participated in Environmental Schemes since 2006)
The average age of a farmer round here is in their early 70's, they made serious dosh in the 70's and 80's jumping aboard the supermarket revolution.( then jumping off)
Next door is still living off '76 drought money, he's just bought a brand new disco, cash.
They've been brought up on solutions to problems coming in chemical cans and bags of miraclegrow. It still works to a degree, especially on high value salad and veg crops, ploughing is a cure all for less than perfect practice imho.
Growing commodity crops to compete with our Canadian friends amongst others, is another matter, as I'm sure @Humble Tiller is more qualified to answer.
Cost is king,
Worms will do what steel and diesel have been the answer to since Dad were a Lad, the more 'switched on' of the few young uns coming through understand this, they're the ones that'll prosper in the coming years...
There's an awful lot of.
' But we've always done it this way...'
They might've, point out that '76 was nearly half a century ago.....their eyes glaze over!